Has the cat got your tongue? Find it with self-publishing.

Stuart’s non-fiction book Felicette has been in my orbit for a while. I’ve been meaning to read it and this week it made its way to the top of my TBR pile.

It tells the story of the first cat in space. This is not a children’s story. It’s not twee or sentimental. And Stuart is very open about the fact that you won’t get a Disney ending.

And another thing Stuart is very open about is that this book is self-published. He explains in the foreword that he queried traditional publishers, but he didn’t get any bites.

But that’s telling in itself.

Stuart’s key motivation is to tell the cat’s story. We know of the Russian space dog, Laika. But a French cat? Nope. When I first heard Stuart talking about her, it was news to me.

And Felicette’s story would still be a mystery to me if it wasn’t for self-publishing.

There are probably all sorts of contextual reasons why the French cat’s story didn’t make as big a splash as the Russian dog’s. But Stuart has taken up the cause of the under-cat. Nothing was going to stop him telling this story his way.

And tell it his way, he does. The narrative is clearly his. His voice comes through. His opinions. His humour. Sarky asides. 

Plus the structure, too. Stuart wanted to tell us about Felicette the space cat, but he wanted to tell us about other cats, too, that have lived (and died) in exceptional circumstances. Those poor cats on the Titanic. I hadn’t thought about them before. So sad…

So, while a story of a cat in a perilous situation is not one that you can necessarily describe as ‘enjoyable’, I did enjoy this book because of what it represented.

The impression of Stuart that I’ve got from his posts online is that he is space mad (especially Mars) and cat mad. And where the Venn diagram of Stuart Atkinson crosses over, here we find Felicette. Stuart was absolutely the right person to tell this story.

I now know about Felicette and I didn’t know about her before. You now know about Felicette when it’s likely you didn’t know about her before.

Self-publishing allows for stories to be told come what may.

And that’s so cool! 

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